The Airtel Hyderabad Marathon was
scheduled on 28th August, Sunday. I had registered for the half.

On the
previous day, I did not go for a run. I planned to take as much rest as
possible. But I had some errands and ended up walking more than 6k and roaming
in the city the entire afternoon. By evening, I was pretty exhausted by all the
errands. For dinner, I had a bellyful of white rice which was my carbo-gorging
(not loading!). I planned to sleep early
so that I could get up by 3:30 am. The cab was booked for 4:30am.

I went to bed by 10:30pm. I
thought about the run in the morning and what would be my target. Though I was
secretly hoping to do it in 2:21, my realistic plan for the run was 2:27. I had
been thinking about my running splits and decided to scribble it
on my left hand. It will serve me as a reminder if I am doing fast or slow, I
thought.

I wrote: 2k - 15 mins

7k
- 50 mins

10k- 70 mins

15k- 103mins

20k- 140mins

21k-147mins

(This picture was taken just
after the run while stretching)

Typically, the night before a
run, I do not get good sleep. Contrary to my previous experience, on that
night, within a few minutes of lying on the bed, I was in deep sleep. Around 1:30pm or 2:00pm, I woke up, drank
some water and tried to sleep. Surprisingly, I was feeling fully awake. I
tossed around in the bed, unable to sleep any further. The 3-3.5 hours of sleep
seemed enough. I just kept my eyes closed.

Around 3:40am, I got up and
prepared myself. At 4:30am the cab came and I contacted 2 other runners, Dev and
Amit who were car pooling with me. We reached the venue around 5:10am or so.

It had rained heavily in the
night. So the early morning weather was cool. As usual, there was lot of light
and music at the start area. There was a big crowd as well. The full marathon folks had already started at 5:00am and they were doing the loop around Hussain Sagar. We went to the
hold area and were joined by the other RTP runners. Together, we took some
snaps, did some warm ups and then there was a call for the line up as per
different corrals. That is when we dispersed and I did not get to see any other
RTP runner till the end of the run.

The run started exactly at 6:00am. I had
a good plan. I started slowly. I was hoping that once the crowd thinned out I
will pick up pace. But the crowd was huge. And it did not seem like thinning.
All runners seemed very excited and but their speed was a slow jog. I also jogged along with
them for the first hundred meters.

Hyderabad marathon is not known
as the toughest city marathon just like that. The race starts at the benign and
beautiful necklace road. But do not be beguiled by the beauty of start area. No
sooner than you have covered even 500 meters, you meet the first of the several flyovers – the Khairatabad flyover. It is a small one, but it is a portent one.
It tell us the shape of things to come.

By the time we reached the Khairatabad flyover, people had picked up speed. Most of the crowd ran past the
first flyover briskly. Down the flyover, a sharp right turn takes the runners
on the Rajbhawan road. I did 2k in about 13 minutes. I was running 2 minutes
faster than my target and was happy. Around the 2.5k mark was the first water
station. Some runners slowed down to take a sip. I continued my run.

At 3.5 km, came the next hurdle. It was the
Somajiguda flyover. A flyover is never easy to run on. Though there is a downward slope after the upward incline, the thought of running up a flyover creates some hesitation in the mind if you are not used to it. But when you have to run, you have to. So, I persisted. The Somajiguda
flyover gave way to the Punjagutta flyover.
By time the Punjagutta flyover forked and we reached the Banjara hills
road number 3, we had covered 5k and yet another mental pressure was building up just by looking at the steep incline of the road ahead. The next 2 km presented a 50meter climb. It
was difficult because it is a straight patch and you can see it. But since it was still early on in the run, most of the runners
sped through. So did I. By 45 minutes since start of run, I had covered 7 km,
ahead of my target by 5 minutes and feeling really happy about it. It was then
I started dreaming about doing a PB (Personal Best). I clocked my Personal Best in 2012 at 2hr:22mins. At the same time, my mind started telling
me that I need to walk a bit. I had not walked at all from the start. I told
myself that there should be a water station in the next 500m to 1k where I can
rest. So, continued running.

Around the 8k mark was a water
station. I stopped and had water, grabbed some biscuits and banana. Then started running again. The next 1 km or so was still a slow climb.
By the time I reached Jubilee hills check post, almost 9k done, the road flattened
out and the running became a little easy. I took 65 minutes for 10k, still 5
minutes ahead of my target and still dreaming of my PB. I thought if I could
maintain this pace, I will be able to do the run at 2:22 instead of
2:27 and just some extra push in the last leg will see me achieve my PB. But I
was not aware of the things to come.

The downward incline continued.
Again, my mind was begging me to walk a bit. It told me that I have 5 minutes
lead. I can easily afford to walk for 1 minute. I kept repeating to it that I
can slow down, I can run slowly, but I will not walk. This tussle went on for 3
more kilometers and after 13km, an upward incline presented itself. The wicked mind, which was looking for
excuses, told me that you have crossed
way beyond the halfway mark, almost nearing the 2/3rd mark. Now, as
a treat to your body, you should walk.
In a moment of weakness, I succumbed to it and walked for about 100 meters.

Around the Hitech city junction,
it is a sharp 100m elevation in about 1 kilometer till the mindspace junction.
That is a killer. I slowed down, reduced my stride length and increased the cadence a
bit. Luckily, the 10k runners had not reached that point yet and hence it
was comparatively crowd free. I remember, the previous year, due to my slow run, by the
time I reached Hitech city, the 10k runners were all over the place - the road,
the water stations, aid stations and everywhere else.

I reached 15k in exactly 100
minutes, still 3 minutes ahead of target. I was still dreaming of a PB. Infact,
I was thinking about a 2:20 finish!

Around that time, I had some more
banana, a bit of water and some electrolyte – fast and up – and that was yuck!

The run from 15k to 17k was
mostly downhill. I tried to make up my lost time in the mindspace hill by
running faster in this leg, with longer strides. There were school kids
standing beside the road and cheering all the while. It was really motivating!

Around 17k I could see the last
big hurdle, the Gachibowli flyover. I had good time till that, at 1hr:53min. I ran
steadily. The school kids were all standing on the flyover divider and
cheering. Some of them extended their hands out and I touched them. It was
invigorating. Around 17.5k, I felt a tightening in the right leg calf muscle. I
was surprised. A runner is not a stranger to pain. I remember I have had pain in all over my body during my marathon preparation, from toes, to feet to heel, to ankle, knee,thigh, back, tail bone, you just name it. But this was different. But I never had such an experience in my last 5 years of running. I slowed
down drastically, almost to a walk. Slowly, the pain subsided and again I
started running. I knew the 3 minutes lead I had was slipping away. I had
already lost almost a minute. Hardly would I have gone another 200 meters, again
the front tibia and the calf muscles of both legs tightened. I saw a
medical aid station and limped along, determined not to stop till I reach that.
The aid station folks sprayed the pain killer on my legs and the pain subsided
to a great extent. I resumed my running. But, just 2 minutes and 200 meters
later, both legs cramped again. It was excruciatingly painful. I could not even stand. I
was in the middle of the road and had to move to the edge of the road to sit down on the
divider. The legs felt like dead lead. I was really afraid by now. My mind
told me to give up. But I did not want to.

I sat on the divider, massaging my
muscles, thinking about the 1000km of running that I had put in before this
run. I thought about the tremendous will power I had to use to quit smoking in
order to run well. Now, the PB was a distant dream. Not only had I lost all the
time I had gained, now the dread of a DNF was looking straight in my eyes. In fight
between mind and matter, mind always wins. But here was a fight between mind
and will. No one was asking the body what it wanted. Mind was gripped with fear and wanted to stop. Will wanted to continue. I summoned all the will power that I had and
stood up.

The runners who were passing
along urged me to keep running slowly and not to sit down. I gathered myself and
started running again. The muscle cramps were still coming in waves. Whenever the calves of the
legs were getting tight, I slowed down a bit and then started running again. But
the intensity of the cramp was reducing. So, I took it as a good sign. With
renewed vigor, I pushed ahead.

By the time I looked at my time,
I had taken almost 10 minutes for that 1 km. As luck would have it, around 19k,
the cramps subsided completely. The PB was definitely not in the scene. I did
not even know if I could meet my 2:27 target. It was 2:11 and I still had more
than 2k to go.

Slowly and steadily I pushed along and entered
the stadium. All the way, the kids were shouting - last leg, 500 more to go. And
even after going 500m, they were shouting 500 more to go. That was frustrating.
But I knew that they were instructed to shout like that. The last leg inside
the stadium, for some reasons, seems very difficult. I reached the red running
track of Balayogi stadium. It was less than even 100 meters now and I could see
the finish line. But my ordeal was not done yet.

Just about 50 meters from finish,
the body that was ignored all the while revolted. The cramps came back again with a vengeance. It was a sharp pain again,
freezing me on the track. My face crinkled with pain. I simply stopped then and
there and bent down. My mind was happy
to prove itself right. It was saying – look, I told you to give up. You did not listen.
Now suffer. This is what you deserve. My will was just observing all that was
happening, without passing any judgment at all. There were no thoughts of PB.
There was no thought of reaching my target. It was just soaking in all the pain,
the dream and the sweat.

A few seconds later, still
writing with pain, I picked up my run and crossed the finish line. I looked up
at the large watch put up beside the finish gate. It showed 2:30. I stopped the
app on my phone that showed the actual run time. It was 2:26:13. In spite of
the trials, I had managed to just beat my target. The will triumphed.

A few minutes later, my phone
buzzed. I received an SMS from the timing company. It read a chip time of 2:26:59.

Woohoo!!! I had beat my target by just 1 second! The feeling, priceless!

It was a journey from a dream to pain to finally happiness. It was a fight between the monkey mind, the obedient body and the indomitable will. Finally, the will triumphs!

~o~

Sandeep, Deepak, Vivek, Vasudha and other folks from RTP runners were
already there, having finished their runs. We stretched, had the breakfast and then returned back.

Before I end this, a big shout out to Hyderabad
Runners (HR) for organizing the AHM. This is the 6th year that they have organized the race and I have participated in 4 of these 6 years. Every year, the organizing team adds something new and the bars are being raised higher. This year, I especially liked the music bands, traditional dancers, tribal musicians and kids on route who were doing a great job of cheering and
encouraging the runners. A huge Thanks to you all AHM Organizers, HR members and volunteers for the great experience!

This story starts on August 30th
2015. It was the last Sunday of August last year and it is the day of annual
pilgrimage of runners at Hyderabad - the Airtel Hyderabad marathon. I had
registered for the same enthusiastically, but my preparation was not good.
However, having completed a half and a full marathon in 2012 and 2013
respectively, I was confident to complete this half. I did. But my time was
dismal. It was dismal by my own standards - the standards of a slow runner. I had
finished the half in 3 hours and 2 minutes.

While analyzing my run, I found
that I was taking a lot of walk breaks in between. I was getting out of breath
and was not able to sustain my runs for a longer period. Thinking more about
it, it dawned on me that the reason could be my habit of smoking. Smoking
impacts the lungs. It destroys the lungs and drastically reduces the capacity
of lungs to hold and assimilate the oxygen from our breath to blood. And hence
I was feeling breathless and had to walk every 500 meters or so. I still do not
understand why I did not face this breathlessness in 2012 and 2013 when I ran
the marathon.

As it happens after every run, I
set up a few new goals for myself. One of them was to do a respectable time in
the 2016 run. This meant that I had to practice regularly. I decided to do a 5k run almost everyday as a practice. Apart from that, I also decided one more big
goal for myself which would help me in running well – that was to quit smoking.

On 30th November 2015,
I had the last drag of a cigarette and quit after being a smoker for 16 years.
My trials and tribulations in quitting will be a story for another day! I was amazed with the results of
quitting. In just about 3 days, I could run a loop of 2.5 kilometers without
stopping. In 7 days, I was elated when I did a 5k run without a break! In about
3 weeks time, I was running 10k continuously without walking at all!

I kept my running rhythm going. By January, I
set some new goals. I told myself, I will run 35 km a week. It will be 5k every
day and since I will be taking 1 or 2 days rest in a week, I will do a 10-15k
long run on Sundays. It was just what I have done till now. I did not do any
other strength training or hill running or tempo runs.

Here is my running chart from Dec
2015 till August 2016:

The year has been a good year of
running for me. I have been running quite consistently and clocking 100+ km per
month regularly. On August 26th, I completed 1000 km of running in
this year and was looking forward to the half marathon on 28th. I
had put in the effort, demonstrated progress and was confident on my ability to
finish quite well.

In my training runs, I had done a
half in 2 hour 30 minutes. So, I was confident that I will be able to better
that. Secretly, I was hoping that I will get a PB by going below 2 hour 22
minutes that I achieved in 2012.

In
a book that I read recently, there was this interesting idea. It said,
to achieve something, you need these 3 things - A vision, discipline around it and passion. In
other words, it could be called the 3Ds.

First
D stands for Dream. It is the vision that you see of the future. Everything
starts with a dream. Dream is the goal. It tells us where we want to go. But
unfortunately, this world is full of people lying asleep, doing nothing with
high dreams. So, dreams alone will not help you achieve what you want.

The
next D is Discipline. It means rigorous practice, doing whatever is required,
when it is required, at regular intervals, irrespective of whether you feel
like doing it or not. For a designer, it could be a daily practice of your
technical skills for an hour or reading on new design concepts for an hour and
so on. This is like putting your whole mind and body into your goal.

But
only those 2D 's are still not enough. You need a third D. It is dedication or
passion. One has to be fully dedicated to the goal. No moonlighting. Dedication
means bringing in your heart. But, if someone is dedicated, but not
disciplined, the goal cannot be achieved.

Thus you need the 3D
to achieve your goals. Do you have all the three?

15th August, 2016: Today is Independence Day. 69 years ago, this day, India
got its independence from British rule. Yes, we are politically
independent, a democratic country. But like many other things in life,
independence also has many layers to it.

So, the question to ask today is,
are we truly independent? Today, we may not be governed by a foreign country.
But we are definitely bound and governed by various personal habits that hold
tremendous power over our life. Have we become independent of procrastination, anger,
jealousy, greed, covetousness and laziness?

Have we become mentally independent
from the shackles of fixed mindset thinking, from our limiting beliefs, from
our fear and our insecurity?

Have we become independent of
social evils like untouchability, dowry, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence,
female infanticide and gender inequality?

Are we independent spiritually,
allowing good thoughts to flow in from all directions, accept the diverse
religious beliefs, yet coexist peacefully.

The true meaning of independence
is not only being independent in political sphere, but also being independent
economically, financially, spiritually and personally.

We have to become independent in
all spheres of life. To this goal we must strive. More than 100 years ago, Rabindranath
Tagore’s penned a poem that is quite apt
for this day!

Running has many benefits. The physical benefits are
well known. But the other day, a chance encounter with a person while running,
made me realize what exactly running can do.

It was a little overcast morning. It had rained the
previous night and the roads were still wet. Some of my running friends had
gone for a 10K run around Novotel hotel and since I had started late, I was
trying to catch up with them.

I reached the hitex exhibition grounds and was
expecting that I will meet them. But they were not to be seen. I was in double
mind. I was weighing whether to return back from there or to run alone. The
morning was wonderful. The place was beautiful. But for me, doing a 10k alone
is somewhat dreadful.

As they say, while in doubt, run! So, I kept running.

I saw him coming towards me in a red vest. He seemed
about 80. His face had wrinkles and freckles, a sign of old age. But he looked
wonderfully strong. He was straight and moreover, he was running! He waved his hand towards me. When he came within
audible distance, I said good morning. He stopped his run, came near me and
asked me what. I shook his hand, wished him again and asked him his age. His
hands were strong. He had well defined muscles. I was admiring his persistence
and effort. But when he told me his age, I could not believe myself.

He said he was 94.

It was really
inspiring to see someone running at that age. When I asked if I could run along
with him, he said some very profound words
- You go on your way, I will go on my own. Do not keep your mouth open while
running. Breathe through the nose, send it to the spine, everything will go
away.

And he ran off
slowly. I stood there pondering what happened. I forgot to ask his name or
where he lived. Even I forgot to take the customary selfie. I turned around helplessly,
looked back at him as he was going. On his red vest, it was written CHITTOOR.

This is my 100th post on my blog. So, here is a little tribute from me to all those who have moulded me into what I am today.

I am like a stone on
the bank of a river. Many others stones come rolling along with the flow of the
water. They lie at the bank for sometime. They do their duty. In their free
time, they talk to me. They share their feelings and frustrations. They shape
me a bit. I shape them a bit. Then, they move on. I feel like I am a historian.
I am the custodian of their stories. The string of little moments spent with
the different stones tell my life story. Grateful to all of them who have come
in my life and shaped it.

Live.Love.Laugh.Learn

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About Me

You: "Well...Sorry, I could'nt get it. Can you please tell that again?"

Me: Never mind! To cut a long name short, I am Braja. Trust that is better. I live in Hyderabad, India with my wife and daughter. I am passionate about reading, writing, running and lately toastmastering... I blog about general musings and random thoughts. I try to live my life well, with lots of love and laugh, learning small new things everyday and finally leave the world a little better.

In another avatar, I work with Capgemini. You can find my professional credentials here.